Online Prayer Calendar

Seven Things to Pray for Missionaries

1. RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD - Too often we assume that missionaries don’t struggle like we do in their relationship with God. But this is the missionary’s primary need. Pray that your missionary will love and study God’s Word, have a strong prayer life, be filled with the Holy Spirit, be maturing spiritually, and make progress over personal sin.2. PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL NEEDS - Satan often discourages us through our physical and emotional lives. Many missionaries live in difficult climates filled with disease. Pray for good health. Pray for safety, stamina and a sense of priority. Remember that preventive prayer helps. When we hear that a missionary is hospitalized for a heart attack, disease or has been injured in an accident, we pray up a storm. The wise thing is to cover your missionary’s health continually. Pray against discouragement, loneliness and depression.

3. FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS - Pray for family relationships—husband/ wife, parent/child. Pray for the children, their salvation and spiritual growth, their health and education. Pray too that their family life will provide an excellent model for local Christians and the unsaved. And pray against the temptations that destroy families. 4. ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE - In world evangelization communication is crucial. Learning a new language and adapting to a new culture are frustrating, difficult and essential to good communication. Would you listen to a speaker who wasn’t fluent in English? But to really communicate, the missionary must adapt culturally to identify with those he is trying to reach. Getting close to the local people and understanding them means adjusting lifestyle and cultural preferences. Pray that your missionary will have the stamina and understanding to demonstrate Christ cross-culturally.

5. EFFECTIVE MINISTRY - Sometimes you can forget why your missionary is overseas, and why you are praying for him. Remember to pray for what your missionary is actually doing: witnessing, visiting, teaching, preaching, counseling, nursing—and pray for the people he is ministering to. Prayer letters will teach you how to specifically pray for these things. But include requests for boldness, open doors, open hearts and excellence in the effort. Most of all, ask the Holy Spirit to empower your missionary for productivity. (See John 15:16.)6. TEAM RELATIONSHIPS - Your missionary is probably not completely on his own. Pray for all the fellow workers your missionary mentions in his letters. Pray they appreciate and sharpen one another in good and healthy ways.

7. COUNTRY OF SERVICE - Expand your praying to include the entire country where your missionary is located. The political situation, the government and its leaders, visas, freedom to preach the gospel—all of these are important factors in world evangelization. You can also pray that the whole country will open up in responsiveness to the gospel. Information extracted from OMF International, 1998, by Bill Wilson